Tomes
Note: Credit goes to El Papoy
At long last we come to tomes. Tomes are massive upgrades which are dropped by the two bosses that appear during the game (at 15:00 and 5:00). There are currently only 6 Tomes in the game and each boss gives you a choice of 3. This means you could see all of them in a game, however this isn’t guaranteed as you could see the same Tome multiple times. The Tome you get after defeating the first boss will have the most impact on your run and can even make or break it. It is almost always worth grabbing a tome, although in some contexts it may be worth avoiding them as they do always come with hefty downsides. Here’s the breakdown.
Tome of Elasticity:(+2 Bullet bounce. -1 Hp, -25% bullet damage) I find this one to be one of the worst of Tomes. It is fine and still worth picking up in any non bullet-damage centric builds. This is because most bullet-damage builds have a lot of pierce which minimizes the utility of bounce. Other builds that utilize pierce, like the shotgun won’t make great use of it either. Of course you should completely avoid any bounce with the grenade launcher unless you have a deathwish.
Tome of Elements:(+35% lightning damage, burn damage and freeze duration. -50% Bullet damage) Elemental damage is already the strongest mechanic in the game. If you are playing an elemental build take it! Otherwise pass.
Tome of Power:(+50% bullet damage, 100% bullet size, +1 pierce. -25% Fire rate, -1 Max HP) -1 Max Hp can be costly to some builds, but if you are playing a bullet-damage build you should still pick it every time. The only gun that might prefer tome of rage is the grenade launcher since it’s base damage is so high.
Tome of Rage:(+66% fire rate, +60 spread, triple max ammo. -50% bullet damage, -95% knockback) Tome of rage is excellent on elemental builds as they don’t rely on bullet damage and can make use of the attack speed through the Fire starter and Electro mage upgrades. I would actually pick it above the Tome of Elements on Characters like Spark and Yuki that have each X bullet triggers. As stated earlier I would also pick it over Tome of power on a grenade launcher run.
Tome of Speed:(+50% movement speed. -1 max Hp) I find this to be a mediocre book. But unlike tome of elasticity it works on every build. So if neither of the two other books offer anything to your build I would say take it. Actually, take it only at the first boss specifically. If you have survived to the second boss it probably means you have enough movement speed by that point and it isn’t worth loosing the max Hp.
Tome of Summoning:(+50% summon damage and attack speed. -50% Reload speed) As the name implies it is perfect for summoner builds which don’t usually tend to shoot much anyways. It is also the best Tome when playing a bullet-damage batgun build.
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